The Mad Bomber
by Robina Snyder
Summary: Karasu survives the Dark Tournament. This chronicles his years traveling around the States as he comes to fame as the serial killer "The Mad Bomber". Prequel to "Karasu is Sitting in My Window".


A/N: I keep telling people I wanted to try a longer Karasu-centered story. My favorites of the 4 short stories I did were the first (Karasu and a Cup of Coffee) and the last (Karasu is Sitting in My Window), mostly because it's just Karasu being quirky, and in places he doesn't belong. I liked the first one best because I really like Karau's murderous side… on the other hand I really like the humor of the last (All the comments I get are on the same two jokes). So, I really wanted to try a longer story.

I don't plan for this to be too long (I mean I already have 2 other behemoths I'm working on, plus an idea for a 7-8 chapter Good Omens fic), but I wanted to go into Karasu as the "Mad Bomber". This is dedicated to the devArt Karasu can group of the same name (that I shamelessly ripped off). Blame them for my current Karasu writing, because I wanted to have a fic for their empty fanfiction section.

Please enjoy.

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I don't know how it started, but I must admit that it was my first long term relationship. By all rights I should have been taken to a hospital. I heal fast, but I could barely move even after we got to shore. Bui was worried. I told him to leave it alone, I'd be okay. Honestly, I can never say Bui's the brightest spark in the fire. Demons bleed purple, or at least a lot of us do. I bleed purple, that's for sure. Otherwise I can generally pass for human, but I can't if someone's taking my blood. I couldn't think up this argument except to splutter at the indignation of being carried into the ER.

I was taken in pretty quickly when Bui somehow managed to get out a believable cover story. "My friend got in a real bad fight. I tried to treat him myself, but he's still too tired to do much," he said. That got us a room anyway, and a chance to be poked and prodded by nurses, and a bed to sleep on. Let's be clear now that I would have gotten better on my own if allowed to rest on my own. The only thing the hospital did was provide me a place to rest that had blankets.

After a few days of me still not being able to move much (I suggest nearly getting all of your blood sucked out by a man eating plant, survive, and then you can tell me how long it took you to be able to move) the doctor decided that I needed to have my blood drawn. I tried to struggle, but there was only so much I could physically do at that moment. My youki was stronger than my physical energy at that moment. When she stuck me I watched, waiting for what I knew would come. I can bleed a little bit of red. Only really powerful demons bleed red completely. Mine would be red for only a short time and then came the deep purple. The nurse screamed.

To be fair, maybe it wasn't just the blood. I hadn't been able to wear my mask in the hospital, and the smell of blood always did set me off, even if it was my own. My hair was blond when she died, a small little bit of energy exploding a single molecule of oxygen in her heart. It's not an easy thing to do, noting I would have known how to do if the Toguro's didn't have use of me. I had only enough time to hide the needle before the staff came. Her death was ruled as a heart attack, and I was given a reprieve from my blood being taken in the confusion, but not for long. They sent someone the next day.

After the third nurse died they got the hint that maybe it wasn't a good idea to come near me. They knew that I'd done something, but they couldn't prove it. Three cases of blood vessels bursting in the heart while near me, and they couldn't prove I'd done it. I must admit that I was feeling smug, and I was starting to regain more and more of my ability to move. Things were looking up, which was why I was surprised to wake up the next morning with a human girl sitting on my legs.

"I know what you are," she said softly, glaring at me from her brown eyes which were mostly hidden by white-blonde hair. She looked frail, and she didn't feel very heavy… heavy enough I should have known that she was sitting on them before I did. They were asleep, and had complained loudly when I'd tried to move them and couldn't.

"What would that be?" I asked, sitting up with the help of the electronic bed. "Get off," I said. I'd have to physically move my leg around to make get the blood flow it needed.

"I'm not doing anything you say demon," she whispered, which made my eyes shoot up to her. It suddenly occurred to me that I should have felt something from her at some point. I didn't sense her at all, or even notice she was there until I couldn't move my own limbs.

"Now, that's not a nice thing to accuse people of being," I said, but I knew I was watching her closer than was normal for a completely innocent person.

"You killed those women," she said. "I know you did," she said.

I smirked. "Prove it," I said.

She glared at me. "Why would you do it?" she asked.

"I'll tell you if you get of my legs," I said.

"Pinky swear?" she asked, and I stared at her extended little finger, unaware of the cultural idiom.

"What?" I asked.

"Pinky swear," she said, then sighed in exasperation. "Take my pink with yours," she said, and I comprehended enough to do what she wanted me to. She shook my hand and then nodded. "Okay, good," she said, hoping up. I was tempted to ask what kind of mystical ceremony I'd just preformed, but I opted to try and move my legs. I had to physically pick them up and move them, and when they did get past the clammy feeling of having a limb attacked that isn't your own they started to really hurt.

"I didn't know demons could do that," she said.

"Do what?" I grumbled.

"Have their limbs fall asleep," she said.

"Well, I have vein and arteries just like you, and if I block the blood flow of those by sitting on your legs then you've have the same problem," I said. That wasn't exactly true. I was surely a lot heavier than her. The pain she'd feel would be pretty quick to hurt.

"Hmm, that's interesting," she said with a dreamy quality that I found disconcerting.

"What are you?" I asked.

"No fair, you have to answer my question," she said.

"That's not how Quid Pro Quo works," I said. She'd already gotten some information out of me, after all.

"You pinky swore," she said, seeming hurt that I'd forgotten. I seemed to remember that same girl having been glaring at me with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns only a few minutes before as she sat on my legs.

"Oh, right," I said. "It's a defense mechanism," I said. I wasn't lying, not exactly. Humans seemed to have a funny thing about wanting to protect those weaker than them, not kill them… strangest thing, but my little story worked like a charm.

Her eyes got all large and she seemed really sad. "What did they do to you?" she whispered.

"Nothing, not really," I said dismissively, "they tried to take my blood," I amended when she started to look angry again. She still wasn't convinced, so I went in all the way. "I just escaped from my…" I paused, considering how best to explain the Toguros. "Owner… they had a rather large affection for causing me pain," I said. It wasn't exactly true. They wanted me to be useful. Physical punishment happened, but mostly for the sake of pushing me further. They preferred screwing with me mentally a lot more.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, looking as devastated as if everything that had happened to me had happened to her instead. I'd never had anyone look at me like that before, or sense really. I'd considered trying a long term relationship, one not dictated by my parents, or needing to be ended before to Toguros found out.

I remember mumbling something like "you didn't do it," just starring at her. She was pretty for a human, but so very wrong. She didn't fit at all. Most humans have a small amount of spirit energy. She had absolutely none. It wasn't just that, she just moved wrong, smelled wrong, and acted wrong. She somehow stood beside normal.

"How did you know what I was?" I asked, suddenly struck with her knowing. Few humans knew, and most of them that did had a lot of money, a lot of spirit energy, or had in some way been harmed by a demon. She didn't seem like any of those.

"Hmmm…" she said, considering. "Well, I don't really know," she said. "I can just look at you and tell. You just seem a little less than human," she said. I'm going to admit that I was more than a little ticked off that I had given away what I was when she hadn't even really known, but I also knew there wasn't much backing down at that point.

"So, tell me why you aren't screaming off into the night?"

"Well… I mean, I'm crazy, so who would believe me?" she asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"And what would you have done if I'd say… tried to kill you or attack you?"

She shrugged. "I don't know… be killed or raped I guess, I mean, worse things could happen, right?" she asked with a smile too big for such words.

"Most people would consider those the worst things that could happen," I pointed out. She paused, tilting her head to the side and seeming to think.

"No, no I think there are worse things," she said.

"What would you consider worse?" I asked, a little curious at that point.

"Hmm… I think, being locked up… or no one believing me," she said in such a way that I ended up hazarding a guess at my next question.

"So, living like you are now?"

"Exactly," she said sadly. "You know what it's like to be locked up." No question, just a statement of fact, like she knew exactly what had happened in my life.

"Yes," I answer. "I'm afraid I do," I added.

"So, I have a deal for you," she said. "If you take me out of here, then I promise not to tell anyone how you did what you did," she said with an infuriating smirk.

"You just said no one believes you because you're crazy," I pointed out.

"Yes, but with all the other weird stuff that happens around you, people will start to worry, especially if another nurse dies… and you'll be found out if you hadn't killed them, right?" she asked. She always was smart. At that moment I knew my hands were tied, but it wasn't all bad. I knew I'd need a few more days before I'd be able to leave, but once I could leave it wouldn't be much of a problem to steal a human girl with me. In reality I wasn't going to be walking out the front door anyway. I nor Bui could pay the hospital bills anyway.

Three days passed before I felt up to being able to move around. It was also as late as I could wait and be sure I could get out. The smell of blood matched with the small of sterile instruments was doing bad things to my mind, especially because I couldn't wear my mask and not look suspicious. When you're that weak the last thing you want is to draw attention to yourself.

Three days passed and I hadn't even learned her name yet. All I'd told her was that she had to get herself to the roof by four a.m. and I could do the rest. It would have been easier to slip out if more people were about, but I didn't want anyone seeing the little stunt I needed to pull to be sure to get out with me plus one.

I arrived before four, and waited. She arrived shortly after, out of breath. "Someone saw you," I said simply, pushing away from the wall. I was back in my normal black clothes. I didn't have anything else, and I needed my cloak.

"I had to get a little money," she said. "So, are we flying?" she asked.

"Not really," I said from behind my mask. I needed it now. I needed to know that I could keep myself together. There had been a couple of third degree burn victims brought in earlier that day. I'm lucky that I hadn't lost it earlier. The smell of burning flesh bring out the worst in me, or the best depending on how you view it.

"So, what do we do?" she asked, reaching up and touching my mask. I hadn't noticed her getting so close, how I knew that I still really wasn't up to escape yet, but I couldn't wait any longer.

"You hold on and try not to scream," I said, grabbing her around the waist and jumping off the side off the building. My cloak billowed out behind me, slowing the decent to a glide and for just a minute I could remember stretching out my wings and flying as far as they would take me. Then the moment was gone and I realized that I hadn't been able to jump high enough to get off the hospital property like we needed. I maneuvered to a lower building roof, to try and take off again. The problem was that this time there were staff outside enjoying a smoke.

From there it was a mad dash over the side, and people yelling, and the crashing realization of not having enough time or energy to make the landed I really needed to make. The landing was rough, and I felt pain all the way up my legs. Standing was agony, but I was still on hospital grounds, in the parking lot, and I had to grab her and run. From there I have a vague memory of running, and of people shouting, lights, nearly getting hit by cars, and eventually having to be led around when my built up energy became too sapped to be able to run as fast as I normally could. I also remember blowing up street lights, but I don't have a real concrete memory of the time line or who all of the snippets of memory I retained from that night fit together.

All I know is that when the sun rose I'd been dragged into a little second hand clothing store, stuffed into a pair of jeans and a white shirt, and then dragged to 24-hour fast food restaurant. "That wasn't the best plan," she told me.

"Well, it worked didn't it?" I asked, fiddling with their scrunchy she'd put in my hair.

"Are your legs okay?" she asked.

No. "Yes."

"If you were human your legs would have been shattered from how you landed on them," she said.

"But I'm not, am I?" I asked.

"No…" she said, considering. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Karasu," I answered, having no reason at the time to lie.

"Odd name," she said.

"Yours?"

"Hmm… oh, Ellie, for now. I'm thinking of changing it," she said.

"Why would you change it?"

"Hmm… I don't know, I just don't like it very much," she said with a shrug before neatly changing the subject. "So, now what are we doing?"

"We?" I asked, thinking it was cute how she assumed _we_ would be going anywhere.

"Well, yes," she said. "I mean, do you know how to seem human?" she asked.

"I did well enough."

"Until you had to blow people up," she pointed out. "Point is that you probably don't know how to live like a human, do you?"

To that I couldn't argue. "I've been amongst humans before."

"But have you really lived with them? Like had a home and anything like that?"

"No."

"Then you won't know how to seem human. I picked you out, didn't I?"

"Yes, but you said that you were kind of odd," I pointed out, feeling a bit curious again.

"Yes, well I'm not really well, but that's beside the point… do you even have any money?"

I didn't say anything for a minute. I knew for certain that no matter where you were you really needed to be able to afford to buy things to survive and I had no money. The only time I'd ever had human money was so I could blend in amongst humans, and those were only during times where I had to assassinate someone and be discrete about it.

It turned out that I did need Ellie, I needed her for about two months. In that time she was Courtney, Jessie, Emily, Tyler, Jackie, Sarah and Ellie again with a final pronouncement of: "I'm just stuck being Ellie forever!" And in a way I suppose she is. I think of her as Ellie, even if no one else even remembers her. As I imagine I'll be around for a while she'll just continued to be Ellie.

Two months, the longest relationship I'd ever had up until that point. In two months she taught me a bit of sleight of hand, mostly how to relieve people of their wallets while receiving a 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' in the process. Or how to lift some food and not get caught. Until I was able to earn a bit of money on my own it was how I survived.

I suppose you could say we had a bit of a falling out. Ellie's little eccentricities were cute and interesting at first. But I was starting to get bored of them and her by the time the two months were over. It was sad really, maybe we could have worked it out.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" she asked as I watched her feed the ducks from a bit of bread we'd conned out of a chain deli.

"What makes you think that?" I asked, keeping my hands in my pockets.

"You have your mask off," she said, watching the ducks and not me.

"Don't I normally?" I asked, wondering if I was really just that obvious or if she was just that odd.

"You take it off when we're going to be around people and you need to blend in, but the second that it's not suspicious you have it back on. There's no one around right now and you have it off… and your hair's turning blond," she said, finishing with the bread and wiping her hands clean.

I tugged a lock of hair up to stare at the blond. I hadn't even realized I'd changed. It wasn't a big deal. I'd have gone that way sooner or later. "Yes, I suppose that is right then. Any last requests?"

"Like what?" she asked, looking at her knees.

"Like how you want me to kill you?" I suggested with a shrug. She'd helped me for two months, I owed her a little something at least.

"What hurts the least?" she asked.

"I don't really know," I said.

She sighed heavily and turned to look at me. "Okay then, I suppose exploding the heart then," she said. No sooner had the words left her mouth than I fulfilled her request. The look on her face wasn't serene like I'd expected. She was glaring at me like she thought I was a bastard. It makes me wonder if she wasn't more interesting than I'd originally thought. It's sad that I never found out. Undone by my own boredom… oh well.

I left her there bleeding out, pulling on my mask and calming back down to black hair. I wandered through the park for a while. It really was beautiful, though I must admit I'm not a big fan of parks any more sense all the bird tend to gather they. Their kind can tell if you have your wings or not. It's rather annoying to be made fun of by a pack of crows who have maybe a tenth of your brain function.

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A/N: That took way to long. This is chapter one of at least 4. Ellie's named after my friend who is nothing like this character, but the name seemed to fit. Yes, it is possible that Karasu killed Luna Lovegood… just shhhh, don't tell anybody.


End file.
